Best Mind-Stimulating Local Event or Series

First Place: The Richmond Forum

richmondforum.org

Second Place: TEDxRVA

Third Place: Escape Room RVA

It’s easy to miss the world-class lineup the Richmond Forum brings to town because its large subscriber base means it doesn’t need to advertise much. But Richmonders pay attention to speaker lists that read like a who’s who of recent modern history, good and bad: Bill Clinton, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Oprah Winfrey, Gary Trudeau, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Robert Redford, Cal Ripken Jr., George Bush, Bill Cosby, Mary Tyler Moore, Mikhail Gorbachev and Smokey Robinson. Oh, and did you hear about the first speaker of the fall 2017 series? That’s right, the Richmond Forum scored Barack Obama.